Buxoro

Buxoro compete in Uzbekistan's Superliga, and the season now on the calendar carries expectations the club rarely had to manage before — a first-ever domestic cup final, reached in 2024, ended in a 0-1 defeat to Pakhtakor, but it put a team from the old city on a stage it had not occupied.

The club traces back to Nurafshon, formed in 1989 to replace the old Bukhara side, which had existed since 1960 and was disbanded the year before. The name changed to Bukhara in 1997, briefly reverted to Nurafshon between September 2021 and 2022, then went back to the historical name. Their best league finish came early in Uzbekistan's independent era, second place in the Higher League in 1994; promotion followed in 2010 after winning the First League.

Home games are played at Bukhara Arena, holding 22,700. Matches against Samarkand's Dinamo are known locally as the derby of the ancient cities, a fixture rooted in the two cities' shared standing as centres of the old Silk Road rather than in any recent rivalry built on the pitch.

Supporters call the team the Steppe Warriors. Among the players who defined the club, Ulugbek Bakaev set the single-season scoring record with 21 goals in 2000 and later returned as head coach — a path from the pitch to the touchline that still shapes how the club is talked about in Bukhara.